Engineering Development For Reproducible Volume Production Of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) Waveplates And Their Applications In Infrared Laser Systems

Narayana S. Varanasi; Herman E. Reedy

doi:10.1117/12.951779

7 July 1986 Engineering Development For Reproducible Volume Production Of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) Waveplates And Their Applications In Infrared Laser Systems

Narayana S. Varanasi, Herman E. Reedy

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Proceedings Volume 0588, Recent Developments in Materials & Detectors for the Infrared; (1986) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.951779
Event: 1985 International Technical Symposium/Europe, 1985, Cannes, France

Abstract

Single crystal cadmium sulfide waveplates have several attractive technical properties to be used as phase retarders in various low power infrared laser systems for defense and aerospace industries. CdS waveplates can be used with CO2, CO, and HF/DF laser systems. Their advantages are power handling capacity to the 100 watt CW range, low insertion loss, ease of alignment due to visible transparency and no beam off-set when inserted in the laser system. Cadmium sulfide waveplates must be manufactured to a high degree of precision in thickness, parallelism and flatness. Due to the crystalline structure, and the soft and fragile nature of the CdS material, volume production of CdS waveplates is a difficult engineering, high technology problem. Currently, these waveplates are manufactured in small quantities. To meet the growing demand for CdS waveplates for infrared laser systems used in defense and aerospace industries, we conducted several engineering and technological experiments exploring new processes and techniques of manufacture to produce waveplates in larger quantity and to study the performance of these waveplates. This paper describes the important technical properties of single crystal cadmium sulfide as a waveplate material, the problems associated with waveplate manufacture and the technological developments made in the techniques of manufacture of these waveplates.

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Narayana S. Varanasi and Herman E. Reedy "Engineering Development For Reproducible Volume Production Of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) Waveplates And Their Applications In Infrared Laser Systems", Proc. SPIE 0588, Recent Developments in Materials & Detectors for the Infrared, (7 July 1986); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.951779

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KEYWORDS

Cadmium sulfide

Wave plates

Laser systems engineering

Crystals

Manufacturing

Absorption

Polarization

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